26 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



left Asia until it reached America. The first landmark is in the intro- 

 duction of the peach into Greece. 



The peach in Greece. — As to the approximate date and the manner 

 in which the peach reached Greece, there is now common accord among 

 those who may be considered authorities on the history of fruits. Theo- 

 phrastus (332 b. c.) was the first Greek to mention the peach, speaking of 

 it as a " Persian fruit." It may be, of course, that the peach came to 

 Greece from Asia Minor or Persia at an earlier date. One might well 

 suspect that if peaches were growing in Persia at the time of the retreat 

 of the Ten Thousand (401 b. c), since the army must have traversed the 

 country in which, according to some, the peach is native and at least had 

 probably then been introduced, the taste of so pleasant a fruit would have 

 inspired some soldier of the retreating Greeks to carry seeds to his western 

 home. But Xenophon, historian of the retreat and a writer on agriculture 

 as well as of war. does not mention the peach as he almost certainly would 

 have done had it occupied a prominent place among the agricultural 

 products of his time. 



There is another story of the introduction of the peach into Greece 

 that may be mentioned to separate fact from fable. Some of the old 

 writers assert that the peach came to Greece from Persia by the way of 

 Egypt. Such statements are founded on a traditionary tale first printed 

 by Pliny to the effect that this fruit was sent into Egypt by the kings of 

 Persia to poison the Egyptians. Pliny ^ denies that the kings of Persia 

 had the peach transplanted into Egypt from motives of revenge but 

 evidently is under the belief that the peach came from Egypt for he 

 says : 



"As to the peach-tree, it has been only introduced of late years, and 

 with considerable difficulty; so much so, that it is perfectly barren in the 

 Isle of Rhodes, the first resting-place that it found after leaving Egypt." 



We would like to amplify the bare statement that Alexander brought 

 the peach to Greece 332 B. c, but this single fact, if it be a fact, seems to 

 constitute the recorded history of the peach in Greece before the Christian 

 era. Dioscorides, about 64 A. D., was the next Greek to mention the peach 

 but he discusses it with reference to its medicinal properties and does not 

 enlighten us greatly as to its horticultural standing. The fact that the 

 several Greek writers whose books have come down to us from the period 

 under consideration do not mention the peach does not argue that this 



' Bostock and Riley Nat. History of Pliny 3:296. 1855. 



